Thursday Edition, or, The Best Fourth of July Ever.

When I started blogging last term, I decided to blog on Sundays because those were the only days I was likely to have free time. Well, summer term is considerably more laid back than spring term, so I decided there's not much of a better way to spend an uneventful Thursday evening than blogging about my holiday this week. Will I still post on Sunday? Probably.

Anyway, as I said in my last post, the Fourth of July hasn't been my favorite holiday, but this year's was unusually enjoyable.

The most eventful part was the 5k I ran. It was more fun than I expected. I'm not sure exactly what it was I liked--whether it was running with thousands of people, being able to run in the road without fear of being run over, having all kinds of spectators cheering us on, or running through the finish line and getting a finisher's medal and a water bottle and free food.

They had all of us line up according to pace. I had no idea how fast I run, so I stood in the 10 minute (per mile) pace. Bad idea. This was way too slow for me, and I had to wait a while before I could pass these people. Because there were so many people, we wore little timing chips on our shoes that started when we went past the starting line and ended when we finished. Since this was my first organized run I don't know if that's standard for most races or not.

So, how did I do? Well, I completed it in 26:36.77. I was 61 out of 107 for my age group (males 20-24) and 465 out of 2836 overall. So not fantastic--I was in the lower half for my age group. But I was stuck for a while in a slow group, and I treated it like a run and not so much like a race--I didn't really push myself harder than I ordinarily do.

I'm not too disappointed, considering that in high school I couldn't run a mile and a half without stopping, and I underestimated myself thinking I ran at a 10 minute pace. I actually ran at an 8:35 pace--and that's with being stuck in the 10 minute group. I never would have expected I would run a 5k. Then again, I also would have never imagined being so fond of an English-speaking mission, doing a geology minor, or having a Lady Gaga song saved on my computer.

There were a bunch of us from my ward who did the run, and I was with many of them for most of the day. We went to the parade at 9:00. Parades are weird things, but it was kind of enjoyable. I'm not a Star Wars person--for all intents and purposes I've never seen any of the movies--but I was amused by the storm troopers carrying a flag. I also was a little surprised that the Utah Provo Mission got to be in the parade.

Now why couldn't Spokane have done that?

After that I donated some pancake mix that has been in my cupboards since before I moved in to an impromptu ward breakfast, and then we went swimming at the girls' apartment complex. Swimming was a little awkward because they were playing different games. One involved catching a football and I can't catch at all (so I didn't really even try) and I can't see a thing without my glasses. Another involved swimming from one side of the pool to the other (the narrow way) and I can't really swim, especially since I'm less buoyant than I used to be.

A little later there was a ward barbecue. I ate too much there. As always, I was a little socially awkward. Then that night there were a bunch of fireworks my wardies were lighting. I must say, I have found out I'm a scaredy cat. I got way nervous with all the aerial fireworks while everyone else loved them. I was also surprised at the amount of near catastrophes that were treated so lightly.

Then that night I spent the night in the apartment below me since they have an extra bed and I have no AC. I have now spent three nights there and will likely spend more, since I don't know when my AC will be fixed and I told my landlord it wasn't an emergency. Oh, well.